


Acceptable Anathema

by Garchomp445



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, One Shot, There is no conflict whatsoever lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 10:12:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15117230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: Robin asks Tharja to teach Cordelia all about dark magic, and Tharja thinks she'll be an uninterested, apathetic teacher. Cordelia quickly changes her mind, and finds out that Tharja isn't so bad.





	Acceptable Anathema

**Author's Note:**

> Gosh I saw some really cute thardelia art like last month, and I really wanted to write something for pride month. And guess what, I technically did! Yay! Happy pride month, everyone!

Tharja didn’t even remember packing all of these books into her luggage, but each of the introductory books she had were still technically intact. Robin immediately started paging through them, and Tharja put a hand up to stop her, but decided against it. It’d be funnier this way.

“Wow! Tharja, I can’t believe you kept all these! Once Cordelia’s done learning, could I-” There was a loud electric noise from Robin’s direction, “Ow! What was that?!”

Tharja giggled, Robin’s hair was standing on end, and there was a slight blue tinge to her face. She felt a little guilty for hurting Robin, but the light blue just fit perfectly with her face shape. She sighed.

“That must’ve been one of my doodles. I figured out that you can just mess around with dark magic, and did so. Come over here so I can reverse it.” Robin leaned in, and Tharja pressed her hands into Robin’s cheeks. The reversal hex was simple, but Robin didn’t know that.

Robin gave her a big smile, “Wow, you must be a really powerful dark mage if your hexes still work after so long! When did you start learning about dark magic?”

“I can’t remember. A few years ago?” Tharja slammed the chest shut, “Anyway, is that all you needed?”

“Actually, would you mind directly tutoring Cordelia? She really, really doesn’t like asking for help, so I need you to make sure that she’s learning properly.”

“It really isn’t that hard.”

Robin pouted, and clasped her hands together. “Please? I know you can do it!”

Someone that majestic shouldn’t be begging Tharja, of all people.

“Fine. I’ll stalk her too.”

“That’s the spirit! Thank you so much!”

Robin left the tent with a short wave. Tharja narrowed her eyes, it sounded like Robin just gave her permission to stalk Cordelia. There was no way she wasn’t going to abuse that privilege.

 

-

 

Tharja growled at the notebook she held. Just like Sumia said, Cordelia followed this schedule to a ‘T’ every. Single. Day. It was the most boring stalking she had ever done. She could just camp wherever the schedule said Coredelia would be next, and bam. Free look at Cordelia. It wasn’t a bad look, either. She wore sleeveless tunics during practice, and very short shorts while running. He hair was long and would be really easy to steal if she wanted to.

She bit her lip. It’d be nice just to have a lock of that beautiful hair. Tharja smacked herself in the head, no, she’s done with that, she stopped stalking Robin after she got sick. Anyway, the next thing on the schedule was Cordelia’s hex practice. If she was going to mess up anytime, it would be now.

Cordelia had a squirrel in a trap that she had obviously set herself. It was still calmly chewing on a peanut, totally oblivious to the practice hex that would tear away at its soul. Maybe Cordelia had already progressed to minor curses, and could cover its skin in boils, or give it some exciting disease. Maybe she would just change its colour, or alter its mind somehow. Tharja shivered with anticipation. Cordelia’s head drooped down, and she released the trap. Tharja narrowed her eyes, maybe she was going to try her hexes on a mobile target? She heard a sob, and the squirrel sprinted away. Tharja’s heart sank, and she flinched again as Cordelia  sniffled and rubbed her face. She stepped slowly out of her hiding spot, then whispered,

“Cordelia? What’s going on?”

She quickly wiped at her face, then turned to give Tharja a smile,

“Oh! I’m doing fine! Nothing’s happening!”

Tharja crossed her arms, “Okay, I lied, I know what’s going on. Why didn’t you cast a hex on that squirrel that you caught?”

Cordelia visibly tensed up, “I couldn’t bring myself to hurt an innocent animal. I know that I have to learn somehow, but…”

Tharja took a deep breath. She couldn’t stand to see Cordelia like this, and teaching dark magic was her job now.

“Cast it on me then.”

“What?”

“Practice your hexes on me.”

Cordelia’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head slowly. Tharja smirked, it was so funny to see Cordelia of all people so concerned for her health.

“Are you sure? I really don’t want to hurt you.”

“Don’t be conceited, do you think your hexes could really hurt me? I’m much stronger than you. Besides, I was ordered to help you by Robin.”

Her shoulders relaxed considerably, and she smiled. That was too relaxed for Tharja’s tastes.

“I don’t know what to say!”

“Maybe thanks? That’d be a good start.”

“Thanks! Thanks a lot, Tharja!”

“Also, I can’t believe you’re doing this in a dirty field. Let’s go somewhere with chairs.”

Cordelia giggled, “Sure! Does my tent sound okay?”

Tharja spoke in a monotone, “Wow, the famously diligent Cordelia indulging in chairs? Is the sky falling?”

“Well, I don’t have chairs, but I do have a cot we can sit on!”

Hm. A pretty girl inviting Tharja to sit on her bed. She stopped talking, and instead just followed for a little while. The afternoon air was excessively warm, and she hated it. 

“Cordelia. Why are you trusting me at all? You know I stalked Robin.”

“She’s the one who recommended you as a tutor! You must’ve done something marvelous for her!”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal. You’re blowing it out of proportion.”

Cordelia smirked at her, “So you did help her out?”

Tharja’s head slinked down, and she glared as hard as she could. Cordelia’s smirk vanished quickly, but she looked so satisfied that she had figured something out.

“I’m not making a habit of it or anything.”

“That’s probably true! My tent’s over here. Make yourself at home.”

The tent was exactly as unadorned as Tharja expected. Just a few crates, her cot, several more weapons than average, and a small candle. Tharja sat down on one of the crates.

“What hex did you need to practice on the squirrel.”

“The book recommended a colour-changing hex,” She showed Tharja the page, “But mentioned that if performed poorly, it could become a paralysis spell.”

“Oh, that one’s easy.” Tharja performed the hand motions, nearly unconsciously, “Then you just channel a little magic, and you’re done.”

Cordelia stared at her blankly.

“What’s with that face.”

“There are hand motions?”

Tharja pressed her face into her hands and let out a growl. Robin once had Cordelia build a perfect recreation of a trip-wire trap, and she only glanced at it once. And these books are so stupid that she can’t even figure out the easiest part of dark magic. Tharja could picture the little free time she gets spilling through her hands like grains of sand. Cordelia started laughing, and Tharja’s head jerked up,

“What’s so funny.”

“Nothing bad! You’re just cute when you’re frustrated. Do you think I missed a chapter?”

A warmth ran through her body, and she pursed her lips together.

“No. The writers are just stupid and assume everyone knows that.” Tharja mumbled, “And don’t call me cute again.”

“What was that?”

“Copy my hand movements, and try the hex again.”

Cordelia sat on the edge of her cot, “Didn’t you whisper something to me?”

“No. I did not.”

 

\--

 

She really wanted to teach Cordelia again, but the crumpled copy of her schedule said that she wouldn’t be available until tomorrow. Tharja splayed herself out across the bed. Teaching Cordelia made her feel smart. She asked questions that were really, criminally easy for Tharja to answer, then put those answers into practice.

Tharja sat up from her bed, and immediately grabbed her own head as she remembered Cordelia’s weird smirk. She made the same smirk every time she figured something out, no matter how minor. Getting a hex right, smirk. Correcting Tharja on something basic, smirk. Getting Tharja to stop pouting in the corner and help her practice, that same smirk. It’s probably because she knows how smart, cool, and perfect she is at everything, including humility.

Thinking back to her obsession with Robin, she realized how many traits they shared. They both had a lot of friends, were incredibly diligent and hard-working, and would work themselves into anxious fits. Cordelia did a better job of hiding it, but whenever she spent more than twenty seconds to understand something, she would start focusing really hard. It got so bad that more than once, Tharja had startled her just by shifting around.

With a heavy sigh, she got up from her bed, and walked two feet to her bed stand to figure out what the next lesson would be. They had already gotten through every useful lesson in the first book, since it wasn’t exactly efficiently written. The author had supplemented each chapter with about nineteen pages of opinionated rambling, the subject of which varied from griping about imprecise blood circles, to complaining about “the youth”. Tharja blanked glanced at her empty bed stand. Cordelia still had all four books.

According to Cordelia’s schedule, she should be out running right now. Tharja crept through camp. The other shepherds weren’t exactly interested in talking to her, but she kept behind tents or dashed through thoroughfares just in case.

She lifted the flap to Cordelia’s tent, and it was just as unadorned as last time. The first crate had clothes, baubles and ornaments in it. Tharja’s hand hovered over the clothes, it would be so easy to just rifle through them once or twice. She slowly lowered the lid back down, and sighed twice before moving to the next crate. It was mostly full of various incomprehensible tools, but had a few books on one end. There were books on a dizzying variety of subjects, from farming to fletching, and three out of the four books she was looking for. The introductory book was here, so Cordelia must be trying to teach herself with one of the others. Tharja laughed, if anyone could accomplish such an impossible feat, it would be her. It was crazy how much she had already accomplished in such a short time. She took one of the books, and replaced the crate’s lid. She turned around to lean against the crate, then opened the book.

“The great treatise on familiar magic,” What a pretentious name for such a simple book. Not exactly an uncommon naming trope for Plegian literature, but especially funny for one used as a training manual. It was a dictionary on simple spells and hexes, and there were a few outlandish ones that Tharja could use as a day’s lesson. It was perfect. She heard a shout, and reflexively slammed her book shut.

“Tharja! There you are!” Cordelia smiled brightly as she came in, “Do you really leave your tent this often?”

Tharja froze, then growled,

“I leave my tent when I want to. If I don’t have any reason to move, why would I?”

Cordelia giggled, “That’s fair. What reason forced you to return to my tent?”

“I wasn’t doing anything suspicious.” She held out the book she was reading, “Your lesson tomorrow will use some spells from this book.” Tharja glared at Cordelia, “But if you keep learning at this pace, I won’t have much left to teach you after next week.”

Cordelia’s brow shot up, “What?! That’s not possible! I just started two days ago!”

“Did you really think I would’ve picked a career that’s  _ hard _ ? Killing people with magic is easy.”

“Surely there’s more nuance to it.” Cordelia motioned in the air, “Your control and mastery of even basic hexes far surpasses mine,  could you make a lesson out of that? ”

“No. Why do you think I’m so much better than normal plegian mages? Henry and I make up half our spells, we just experiment and decide what works from there.”

This was all basic stuff. Tharja knew how to cast Ylissean magic, but it was much more rigid and formal, and she couldn’t get entirely comfortable with it. Cordelia smirked,

“Ah, so the only way I could learn your methods, is if I spent a lot of time with you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, I’ll at least get a chance to try! Robin’s definitely going to pair us up during the next battle.”

Tharja stared at Cordelia, “How do you know that?”

“I actually attend her war meetings.” Cordelia smiled, “I highly recommend it, you’re virtually guaranteed to learn something.”

There was an embarrassed pain in Tharja’s chest, and she gazed towards the open door. She usually didn’t get embarrassed about stuff like this, why now? Cordelia must just be good at making her guilty.

“Well, it’s been fun, but I should get back to my own tent.”

Cordelia clasped her hands together, “Oh! Before you go, I have a present for you!”

She turned and unhooked something from the side of her tunic. It was a big feather. Tharja hesitantly took it.

“A feather? Are you giving me a new pillow very slowly?”

“Oh no, it’s a quill!” Cordelia pointed to the end, which certainly did look different than a regular feather, “I noticed your lack of any writing utensils or ink, so I’m going to rectify that! Did you want a spare inkwell?”

“Sure.”

Cordelia opened the crate that Tharja was leaning on, and produced a small iron inkwell. Tharja hadn’t even tried to move, Cordelia just stepped right over her. They were practically shoulder to shoulder.

“You might have to reactivate the ink with a drop of water first, just like watercolour paints!”

Tharja stood up, and let Cordelia hand her the ink.

“Yeah. Thanks. Bye.”

“See you tomorrow!”

Tharja stepped into the cool outside air. The sky was a bright orange, with some faraway clouds dyed purple. This was a terrible dilemma, she was being paid in extremely useful gifts. With her salary, Tharja could’ve purchased a quill and inkwell at any time, but she instead put it off until that weakness could be exploited.

She put the inkwell and quill on her nightstand, then went to bed.

  
  


\--

 

Cordelia handed Tharja a scarf as soon as she stepped into the tent.

“Another gift for my wonderful teacher!”

Tharja covered her face and growled, “I’m going to ignore that for now. Anyway, your lesson today is about…” Tharja held the intricate, flower-patterned wool scarf in her hands, and smelled it. She frowned. It wasn’t an entirely natural scent. Pleasant, but with a hint of iron. She glared at Cordelia.

“An enchanted scarf? Do you know how badly you could’ve hurt yourself?”

“Well, there’s risks to anything.”

“There’s no risk of cursing a scarf to strangle its wearer in normal knitting.” Tharja wrapped it around herself, “It stays cool even in the heat? How?”

Cordelia put a hand up to her mouth, “Oh, that was easy! I just made a heat charm that adjusts based on the wearer’s wishes.”

“Aha, did you make an override for frostbite?”

“That’s brilliant, Tharja. How would I make a spell to do that?”

Tharja grinned, “Let’s make that today’s lesson.”

 

\--

 

Yesterday, Tharja had woken up to the most curious object. Cordelia had left an ornate walking stick in her room. The day before that, Cordelia took the surplus from a fruit shipment to share with Tharja. It was infuriatingly generous, and she was clearly trying to put Tharja into debt with her. Tharja imagined being stuck with Cordelia forever, having to share a room, maybe even a bed, and she sighed heavily. Robin giggled at her,

“Hey! How’s it going, Tharja?”

“Henry didn’t sit with me today and I’m already angry.”

“Tharja! He’s in the lunch line!”

“The birds were being loud last night.”

“What birds? I was awake until morning, and I didn’t hear any.” Robin quickly put a large brussel sprout into her mouth, and tried to make eye contact with Tharja.

“I accidentally cursed my tent to rip itself into shreds.”

“I walked past it just an hour ago, you were already in the mess tent.”

Tharja put her fork down and glared at Robin, who had an insufferable, tiny smile, “Fine. Cordelia keeps giving me things.”

Robin tilted her head to the side, “What sort of things?”

“Just, stuff. Did you tell her she had to repay me?”

“Nope! So it’s really good stuff? Presumably, she isn’t just throwing junk in your tent?”

“No, but I don’t want to be tethered to anyone in this earthly realm.”

“Right. Is she learning well?”

Tharja scoffed, “Is  _ Cordelia _ learning well? Of course, she’s a natural.” She broke eye contact with Robin, “She doesn’t exactly have a lot of power to her spells, but everything else she does is perfect. She made me this fantastic scarf that stays cool in the heat, and even gives off a mild scent.”

“And you’re upset about this scarf?”

Tharja glared at Robin, “No! Of course not! Why would you insinuate that?”

Robin ate a piece of steak just slowly enough to be annoying, “I see what’s going on.”

“What’s going on.” Tharja glanced from side to side, “What are you talking about?”

Robin giggled, then focused on her meal. Tharja growled,

“Robin, answer me.”

Henry’s uneven tones blasted out from behind her, “Hey Robin, Tharja! Mind if I sit here?”

“Why do you keep asking that, no one else would ever take your spot.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet!”

“It’s more because you’ve definitely hexed it.”

Henry laughed, twisted his finger, and the runes next to Tharja disappeared.

“You know me too well!”

He sat down, and the three of them lapsed into comfortable conversation. Tharja was still upset about Robin’s refusal to talk, but there was little she could do about it now.

 

\--

 

A pomegranate. Expensive in the best of times, and right now was the off season. It was just sitting on her bed, ripe and delicious. Cordelia couldn’t possibly expect her to eat such a succulent treat by herself.

This was the last straw. Tharja opened another crate that she didn’t remember packing, and drew out a bunch of steel stakes. They were covered in plegian insignias, just like everything else she owned. She took a handful and walked outside, flinched at the harsh rays of sunlight, then crouched down to the side of her tent.

Squinting through the piercing sun, she stretched the black canvas down into the dirt, then stabbed it with the stake. She missed. The canvas moved back to where it was before. She growled. She stabbed the canvas first, then dragged it taut. Soon, all the loose canvas was staked to the ground. No one was going to be able to sneak into her tent now. If Cordelia really wanted to give her some gift, she’d have to do it directly. Checkmate.

Tharja moved back into her tent and flopped down onto the soft pillows. She was asleep in minutes.

 

\--

 

Tharja woke up to her tent totally unchanged, for what felt like the first time in weeks. There were no teddy bears on one of her crates, or fruit on her bed, or cool sticks impaled into the ground. She felt a slight ache in her chest, but tried to shake it off. This was exactly the intended effect.

She stood up from her bed slowly, then heard a suspicious sound from outside. It was coming from one corner of her tent. Tharja grabbed the pomegranate, and marched outside.

Cordelia waved from the ground,

“Tharja! It looks like someone ruined your tent’s canvas by staking it to the ground.”

“That was me.” Tharja crossed her arms, “Will it take forever for you to fix? Because, clearly, there’s no way for me to stop you from fixing it.”

Cordelia’s smirk was so familiar, and so utterly revealing. She was happy about this, for one particular inane reason that Tharja could think of. And Tharja couldn’t deny that about herself, either.

“Yup! We’ll have to be together even more. Just sitting around, talking.”

Tharja’s face flushed. She smiled.

“Gods this is the worst. You’re really backing me into a corner here.”

Cordelia grinned from ear to ear, “Say it isn’t so.”

“I am literally saying it is so.” Tharja growled, “Help me eat this pomegranate.”

“What?”

Tharja brought out the pomegranate, “You’ve given me so many gifts, and it’s annoying. If we eat this together, then it won’t be a gift.”

“It’s a deal!” There was a distant twinkle in Cordelia’s eyes, “Although this might not be the last time I give you something, Tharja.”

“Then I won’t be able to repay you unless I follow you everywhere.” Tharja grasped Cordelia’s hand, “Will you be mine, forever?”

Cordelia used her other hand to stifle a giggle, “Do you want to date or marry me, Tharja?”

Tharja’s cheeks burned, she couldn’t wait to get out of this insufferable sun. She growled, drawing in as close to Cordelia as she could,

“Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! feel free to leave comments or kudos!
> 
> haha this went through like fifteen different revisions until i finally landed on one that i was comfortable writing. Also, this is technically the only fanfic i've ever edited! Yay!


End file.
